Janitor's House, Primary School, 35 Church Street, Govan

Janitor's House, Primary School, 35 Church Street, Govan

A 3-storey Italianate former Board School designed by Donald Bruce and E A B Hay, completed in 1903. The rectangular-plan building occupies a gushet site bounded by Church Street, Torness Street and Byres Road. To the south of the site stands a 2-storey swimming pool and gymnasium block, also by Bruce and Hay (1904), with an attached 2-storey janitor's house (now roofless). All structures are built in stugged, squared and snecked red sandstone with polished ashlar margins.

The school block features a base course with cill courses at each level (not at the rear) and a corniced string course between the ground and first floors of the principal elevation. Bracketed eaves support pitched and piended grey slate roofs with crested ridges, while cast iron rainwater goods run throughout. Original fenestration is regular across the elevation, with 10-pane timber sash and case windows featuring 4-pane upper sashes and 6-pane lower sashes.

The north (principal) elevation presents a symmetrical 9-bay composition with a slightly recessed central 3-bay section. The first floor windows are corniced, with those in the outer bays continuous with engaged Doric columns flanking each window. Panels below the first floor bays are inscribed 'GOVAN PARISH', 'CHURCH STREET PUBLIC SCHOOL', and 'SCHOOL BOARD'; a scroll-carved panel above the centre window is dated 1903. Flanking single bay sections set back from the main block flank the central section. The left section features a modern timber 2-leaf door within a lugged architrave, with a plaque above inscribed 'INFANTS' in a scrolled surround and a finialled broken pediment above. Single storey entrance blocks project at the outer ends.

The south (rear) elevation is symmetrical with 12 bays, the central 6-bay section slightly recessed. A tall, square-plan chimney rises from the ground, breaking the eaves at the centre right, with blind arch detail between corniced string courses above eaves level. All windows have raised cills.

The west (Byres Road) elevation is asymmetrical, comprising 6 bays in 3 advancing blocks. The central 3-bay section contains mezzanine levels at the second and third floors. A single storey corniced and parapeted 2-bay entrance block at basement level has an architrave matching the north elevation, with a plaque above the doorway (modern 2-leaf inner doors) inscribed 'BOYS'.

The east (Church Street) elevation mirrors the west elevation but features a 5-bay single storey entrance block with a corniced and ball-finialled curved parapet. A plaque above the doorway (doors as above) is inscribed 'GIRLS'.

The interior contains a central double-height galleried hall at the first and second floors, with modern partitions to the east and west enclosing stairs. The hall is lit by glazed rooflights supported by hammerbeams with baluster detail and gothic fretwork decoration. Moulded segmental-arched openings open onto the space, which is furnished with iron railings featuring scroll decoration at the top, timber handrails, and a glazed white tiled dado with blue foliate-moulded tiled border. A lower central hall at ground level features a compartmental ceiling and similar tiled dado.

The swimming pool block presents an irregular fenestration to its playground elevation (north) and Torness Street (south), with an angled entrance elevation to Byres Road. The door to this entrance is accessed via stone steps between low coped sandstone walls and railings. The pitched grey slate roof incorporates a continuous glazed timber raised rooflight, a shaped skewed gable, and gable apex stacks.

The pool interior includes a rectangular tiled pool with original white and blue tiles (with replacement tiles to the pool edge), white glazed brick walls to gallery height, and changing cubicles with timber 2-leaf half-height doors along the north wall. A female dressing room to the west includes a toilet, with additional toilets and showers (later additions) to the east. Stone stairs at either end of the north wall lead to a timber-floored deck and viewing gallery fitted with decorative wrought iron railings in a scrolling pattern. Cast iron roof supports feature pierced quatrefoil detail. The gymnasium shares the white glazed brick finish, rooflight, and roof supports, and retains original seating and cast iron radiators.

The boundary of the entire site is defined by low, squared and snecked sandstone walls with ashlar coping, stepped and curved to accommodate the slope of Byres Road, and topped with scrolled iron railings repeating the pattern used inside the school. Polished ashlar square-section plinthed gatepiers, positioned at Byres Road and Church Street, feature corniced caps with central raising and ball finials (those at Church Street are damaged with lost finials). A higher section of wall with flat, shaped coping stands at the corner of Church and Torness Street.